Fire burns down shophouse

JAKARTA: Seventeen fire trucks were deployed on Saturday to extinguish a fire that razed a three-story shophouse on Jl. Balikpapan in Tomang, Central Jakarta.

No human casualties were reported after the fire.

Firefighters needed less than an hour to put out the fire, which started at around 5:10 p.m. from the ground floor of the building, said Ading Hardjasasmita, head of the Central Jakarta Fire Department.

He said that because there were no hydrants in the area, the fire department had to deploy 17 trucks, which took water from the nearby Cideng river.

Besides hydrant problems, the firefighters were blocked by a steel fence, and locked doors and windows in the shophouse, which stored paper-based materials, he said.

However, Ading said the cause of the fire was still unclear. --Antara